I had a strange experience earlier this month when I went to watch A Complete Unknown, the Oscar-nominated biopic on Nobel-winning bard Bob Dylan. We were barely a dozen in the large hall on a weekday afternoon. I paid ₹240 for a ticket and realised that most of the food items the multiplex offered cost more than the ticket. It might have been cheaper to step out of the movie area, get something in the mall’s food court, and then buy a new ticket to get back in.
Movie outings are simply not what they used to be, and a few recent experiences have made me look back at the old days with 3D-viewer glasses. Digital technologies have led to paradoxical divergences. Shooting and editing of movies are a lot cheaper; but the same technologies have given us broadband internet at home and all-you-can-watch content for a fixed subscription on OTT apps.
I grew up in a time when watching the ‘first day first show’ of a Friday release at a single-screen hall was a status symbol. It regularly featured characters like Dev Anand’s in Kala Bazaar (1960), who made a living by selling movie tickets in the black market.
Both the good and the bad of that era are gone. Today, we can binge-watch on a small screen at home or book a multiplex ticket on an app—no need to face the hassle of the black-market hustle.
Just when those in the movie screening business were figuring ways to face the changing market—somewhat like a latter-day version of Guru Dutt as the fallen filmmaker in Kaagaz ke Phool—multiplex problems seem to be multiplying.
Last month, a Bengaluru consumer disputes redress commission fined multiplex chain PVR-INOX ₹1 lakh after an angry consumer’s complaint that he had been made to watch too many ads that had significantly delayed the movie’s start. The commission asked movie theatres to display the precise time of a movie’s start. The order was stayed by the Karnataka High Court, but the show isn’t over yet.
As if the case was not enough, the Karnataka government in its latest budget announced a ceiling of ₹200 per movie ticket at all theatres in the state including multiplexes. It also promised a government-aided multiplex in the state capital, ostensibly to encourage Kannada movies.
Ironically, the merger of multiplex chains PVR and INOX was itself an industry event that acknowledged a slump in the screening business and the need to cut costs. The screen slump comes with the backdrop of southern-language films such as KGF and Pushpa that have been hits even in dubbed versions released in the north. Notably, Karnataka’s movie producers seem to like the price cap, because not every movie is as successful.
It’s not easy to reverse-swing the business back to the days when profits came from ticket sales and ads. We need innovations at various levels—and some out-of-the-box-office state support. You cannot outlaw abundance in market economics, but you can play packaging tricks. Take a leaf out of the potato chips business: the tuber is cheap, but wafers enjoy huge profits. The problem is that movies are already being sold in something like small packets delivered at home—it’s what the OTT revolution is all about.
Large-screen viewing in major cities now involves factors beyond the control of filmmakers and screen owners. The urban movie lover has to spend time in traffic jams and steal time from other pursuits. Multiplexes do not seem to love the less affluent, where the politician’s prized votes are—it might explain the Karnataka price ceiling and even the increased GST on caramelised popcorn imposed last December.
My favourite multiplex offers non-stop viewing of trailers for a modestly priced ticket. But, as the Bengaluru experience suggests, you can’t go too far with ads.
Attempts to boost collections through private screenings for groups have not gone far. Re-releasing old classics is another trick being tried out. Earlier this year, I enjoyed watching Raj Kapoor’s Sangam about 50 years after its original release—and there were many more viewers than at the Dylan biopic. Old movies for a new audience is a win-win deal—just convince viewers that a trip to the hall is worth it. Why would anyone watch something available for close-to-free on YouTube unless the experience is grand?
Perhaps multiplex owners need to sell subscriptions for multiple visits, taking a leaf out of OTT apps. It has been tried in bits and parts, though not on a large scale. Rather than expensive add-on nibbles, I would prefer simpler, but free, eatables.
In Pakistan, they have a practice of screening the final episode of popular TV serials on the large screen, with leading actors present in a premiere-like atmosphere. If multiplexes can negotiate such deals in India, the practice can be turned on its head—a hyped-up, eagerly-awaited web series can be inaugurated on the large screen with a ‘first day first show’ appeal. For this, perhaps multiplex owners need to come down from their high watchtowers and listen to Dylan, who sang about how one must learn to swim or sink like a stone. The times indeed are a-changing.
(Views are personal)
(On X @madversity)
Madhavan Narayanan | Senior journalist